High Stakes: Insider Movement Hermeneutics and the Gospel
Is the Insider Movement’s interpretation and application of the apostolic method and first-century religion rich rediscovery or radical redefinition?
Many IM proponents insist that Muslims who convert to Christ should hold fast to various Islamic practices and avoid the identity of “Christian” altogether. This avoidance exceeds the realm of labels, as converts are called to remain inside Islamic religion and retain their Islamic cultural and religious identity. 1. Messianic Muslims and Muslim... Continue Reading
Intinction and the BCO: A Response to Clair Davis
The practice of intinction: a matter of diversity or theological aberration?
Dr. Davis is trying to make the intinction debate an issue about people, but the truth is that this isn’t about people; it’s primarily about ceremonial representations of eucharistic theology. Secondarily, and perhaps no less significantly, it’s about the authority of the Church to ensure that the Lord’s service is performed in a manner that... Continue Reading
The True Bread of Heaven that Satisfies Our Hunger
Sandwich – Bar – Bread – Loaf – Lord – Manna – LORD—Bethlehem
Jesus also knew we have a deep spiritual hunger that only he can satisfy. To end that famine, on the cross the Father ground up – kneaded up – his dear, dear willing Son. And from this crushing and grinding and kneading and molding and baking on the cross came a loaf with sweet life... Continue Reading
Morality—the Secular Response?
Can science explain morality?
If one secularist says morality is broken and needs to be fixed, then another can say it is not broken and does not need to be fixed. So they are left with nothing but arbitrary opinions as people try to pick and choose their own morality. Morality has always been a problem for secular humanism... Continue Reading
Strange Bedfellows: Dissing ‘Christian’ America
Americans United for Separation of Church and State praise the NAE
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), having just rejected that America is a Christian nation, has earned unsought praise from the ultra liberal and secularist Americans United for the Separation for Church and State (AU). “The NAE represents a broad swath of evangelical denominations, so these results give us some cause to celebrate,” recently... Continue Reading
Were the old Calvinists like today’s Islamists?
Calvinist ideas that to us seem intolerably theocratic dominated not just the Netherlands, but also New England, Switzerland and Scotland
There are a number of Calvinists out there today who would espouse virtually all of these views (perhaps even tyrannicide? I’m not sure …). I don’t think most Reformed Christians give the time of day to these thinkers, but there is a minority that is with them all the way.
Eight Duties of Church Members to Pastors
5. It is the duty of members to go to them when under trouble or temptations.
Benjamin Keach was a Puritan Particular Baptist pastor who lived from 1640-1704. He is the namesake for the annual Keach Conference. The slightly edited extract below is taken from The Glory of a True Church and its Discipline Displayed (1697), one of Keach’s many works addressing ecclesiology and ministry.
The Danger Of Asking God “Why Me?”
God did not create a world with death and evil in it. It is the result of humankind turning away from him
We don’t know the reason God allows evil and suffering to continue, or why it is so random, but now at least we know what the reason isn’t, what it can’t be. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he doesn’t care. He is so committed to our ultimate happiness that he was willing to plunge into the greatest depths of suffering himself.
Calling Jon Stewart’s Bluff
Both Chick-Fil-A and gay marriage are unhealthy for America.
How do we know that gay marriage is a positive social arrangement? In fact, one objection to this change in law is that we have no idea what the consequences — positive or negative — of such a change to millenia of legal arrangements and cultural expectations will be. Though we do have some data from social scientists on the benefits of regular marriage
Church, State, and The President
This administration…has carried secularism to levels never attempted by any of its predecessors
It is a bad, dangerous, and devious encroachment on constitutional liberty, and could undermine one of the greatest pillars of American national success. The balance between faith and reason is for the determination of each individual, and of the people as a whole, not of unauthorized government officials uttering impious humbug as they arbitrarily try to define that balance.